St Hubert Catholic High School Video; Parents claim that the school is a hostile atmosphere for Black pupils and that the students who are supposedly in the video are no longer attending.
Following a racist video that showed students at St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls in Holmesburg donning blackface the day before, the backlash intensified on Wednesday. After “reactionary broad threats” were made, the school shifted to flexible instruction, with students completing schoolwork at home. Two parents of former students went public with their accounts of harassment their children had at the school in recent years.
St. Hubert’s also decided to cancel all on-campus extracurricular events for the rest of the week on the advise of the Philadelphia Police Department.
The viral video that started the outrage features a group of white teen females, one of whom is seen spray-painting a dark pigment across the face of another while saying “Know your roots!” and “It’s February!” as well as “You’re nothing but a slave.”
The blackfaced girl then exclaims, “I’m Black and I’m Proud!” The video’s other girls chuckle frequently.
Leaders of St. Hubert claimed in a Facebook post on Tuesday that they were aware of the video and were looking into it.
They said, “All those accountable will face appropriate sanctions in accordance with our school handbook.”
St Hubert Catholic High School Video Full Viral Racial Philadelphia
The two St. Hubert students who are reportedly behind the video, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, “are not present in school and are being penalized accordingly,” however they did not go into further detail. They added that one of the girls attended a Philadelphia non-Catholic high school.
The video, according to protesters at St. Hubert’s on Wednesday morning, wasn’t an anomaly. At least two present parents said that since they were Black, their children who had previously attended the school experienced a hostile and unwelcoming environment. Both parents said that as the harassment got intolerable, they removed their child.
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When his daughter started in the school as a freshman, Lamar Martin, a Black man, applied to be a track coach. Martin claimed that while working there, there were racial tensions, and he thinks that the school decided not to extend his contract over the summer because of that. In November, his daughter requested to be taken out of school.
She believed there were further discriminatory issues at the school, and despite her attempts to voice her concerns — she really went to the president and the principal — they did nothing, according to Martin.
According to Nikole Hines, her daughter felt so singled out for being Black that the two complained to the archbishop, describing, among other incidents, how a fellow student had called her racial epithets. Hines claimed that the communication with the archbishop had produced no results, so she had her daughter withdraw before the start of her senior year in the summer of 2020.
It’s not acceptable, said Hines, “I was paying for my child to be tormented and bullied.” Although they advocate for love and acceptance, my child didn’t experience any of it throughout her three years there.
All media queries have been forwarded to the archbishop by St. Hubert’s. According to spokesperson Ken Gavin, the archdiocese was unaware of the situations involving the two parents. The recent social media statements were denounced in a statement by the archdiocese.
Gavin stated that the goal of Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is to develop morally upright children and adults. “Racism is a deadly sin in our eyes. It has no place in our hearts or thoughts, and no Catholic school, including Saint Hubert’s, will tolerate such behavior.
Gavin claimed that St. Hubert’s had already been actively collaborating with the Anti-Defamation League to achieve the designation of “No Place for Hate.” Despite the fact that there was no particular incident that sparked the cooperation, he said that the school is turning to the ADL for more support in light of the video. The school will provide counseling services to any St. Hubert’s student who requests them and is also looking for resources from the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing.
The protesters criticized the declarations as being insufficient and requested that the archbishop take additional action to address more serious concerns at the school. Hines advised other Black parents to remove their children from the school until more is done to improve the environment Black pupils experience.
On Friday, there will be a demonstration at the school headed by the students.
